Question

Variables SPLOC and PERNUM in CPS 2015

Hi,

I'm interested in using the variables SPLOC in the CPS monthly data (non-ASEC). In 2015, SPLOC reports the spousal location (PERNUM) of every married person's spouse. However, on the CPS website, PERNUM is not available in 2015, while SPLOC is available in every month in 2015. Do you know when PERNUM will be integrated for the monthly samples in 2015?

Staff Answer

The variable PERNUM will become available for the 2015 basic monthly samples with the next IPUMS-CPS release, which is expected this fall. In the mean time, PERNUM simply represents the person's order within the household, so you could also generate the variable yourself.

Correct. PERNUM is actually generated implicitly during data processing and is then used to assign SPLOC, MOMLOC, and POPLOC values. The 2015 basic monthly samples simply did not export the PERNUM values to the dataset due to an internal metadata error. The error has been identified and it does not effect anything besides PERNUM, so your generated PERNUM should aligne with SPLOC, MOMLOC, and POPLOC.

Correct. PERNUM is actually generated implicitly during data processing and is then used to assign SPLOC, MOMLOC, and POPLOC values. The 2015 basic monthly samples simply did not export the PERNUM values to the dataset due to an internal metadata error. The error has been identified and it does not effect anything besides PERNUM, so your generated PERNUM should aligne with SPLOC, MOMLOC, and POPLOC.

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